St. Augustine's Advent Calendar 2021

    Galatians 3:23-29; 4:6-7 23  Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24  Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25  But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26  for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. 4 6  And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7  So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. [1] As our advent season of preparation draws to a close,

    O Emmanuel: O Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver, the hope of the nations and their Saviour: Come and save us, O Lord our God.   The O Antiphons are ancient prayers that have been said and sung in the days leading up to Christmas for centuries – perhaps even as far back as the 6 th century in Italy. The prayers all refer to the prophecy of the coming Messiah found in the Old Testament text, Isaiah, but each one also references other scriptural passages. Each prayer starts with a title given to the Messiah and, if you lay out the first letters of each of these titles, from last to first, it spells out the Latin phrase Ero cras, which means “tomorrow, I will be [there]”. This is thought to be an intentional acrostic – something early medieval writers were fond of:   O S apientia ( O Wisdom ) O A donai ( O Lord ) O R adix Jesse ( O Root of Jesse ) O C lavis David ( O Key of David ) O O riens ( O Dayspring ) O R ex Gentium ( O King of the Nations )

Gustav Dore’s “Celestial Rose” (1868) – “This realm of ancient bliss shone,  soul on soul, with new and ancient beings,  and every eye and every love was fixed upon one goal.”  (Dante, Paradiso 31.25) O Rex Gentium O King of the nations, and their desire, the cornerstone making both one: Come and save the human race, which you fashioned from clay.   6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; 7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.                                                                                                                                     Haggai 2:6-7   When I was a kid, a favourite Christmas tradition, if you want to call it that, involved eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Sears Christmas Wishbook , followed by many hours of p

  “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”   I remember the first time I made the connection of the importance of the passage of Luke 1: 39-56 and even to this day the weight of this part of the advent season is truly awe inspiring. Luke begins his account of the story Christ with foretelling the birth of John the Baptist to the childless Zechariah and Elizabeth. This all becomes clear when Gabriel visits Mary in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. As we see in the reading and the passage above, it is clear that the miracles of both Elizabeth’s pregnancy and that of Mary are connected and help to put Mary at ease. I cannot help but think on how Mary feels after the visit of the angel Gabriel and that her visit to Elizabeth is not only reassuring, but also makes her feel less alone and isolated.   Up

    Fra Angelica, The Annunciation (ca. 1426) A Peaceable Life – with a Purpose The Ecumenical Lectionary functions – in part – to expose us to “all the counsel of God” (Acts 20:27 KJV). So when the readings in the 4 th week of Advent take us through the Epistle to Titus, we should probably take it as a good admonition to read and pay heed. Yet at first appearances, finding something relevant to the season from the assigned passage for today seems a tall order: [Writes Saint Paul] 2  1-6  Your job [Titus] is to speak out on the things that make for solid doctrine. Guide older men into lives of temperance, dignity, and wisdom, into healthy faith, love, and endurance. Guide older women into lives of reverence so they end up as neither gossips nor drunks, but models of goodness. By looking at them, the younger women will know how to love their husbands and children, be virtuous and pure, keep a good house, be good wives. We don’t want anyone looking down on God’

  Mary and Elizabeth   Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you and many will rejoice because of his birth. Luke 1: 13-14.   Advent represents the church season of preparation and of waiting   Today’s gospel tells the story of a devout elderly couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth. As faithful Jews they had long been waiting for the promised Messiah. On a more personal level they had also been waiting many years for a child of their own. It is only when this had become humanly impossible that God sent the angel Gabriel to tell Zechariah that Elizabeth would become pregnant with a male child who would be called John. Not only would the child John bring profound joy and blessing to Elizabeth and Zechariah but he would also grow into the prophet who would be filled with the Holy Spirit, and who would be greatly used by God to make his people fully ready fo

    St. Paul's, Halifax “How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts!” (Psalm 84:1)   St. Paul’s Church (formerly Cathedral) in Halifax is a remarkable place – built in 1750, it was the first Cathedral of the Church of England built outside of Great Britain.   It is the oldest building in Halifax, and the oldest Anglican place of worship still standing in Canada.   The “new wings” were built in the mid-1800s, and in the front entrance, there is embedded a piece of shrapnel from the Halifax Explosion during the Great War, left as a relic of more dangerous times.   St. Paul’s represents a diverse span of stories, ones that speak of the grand themes of history, but also of the quiet and deeply personal journeys of faith.   Spending time within its walls brings a humbling reminder of the history and foundation of the Church – a perfect complement, a physical companion if you will, to liturgical worship and the natural cycle of the Church calendar.  

Holy Wisdom (icon, 1670’s) When I was given the readings for today, I was very excited to see that I was able to use the first of the O Antiphons for my reflection. This last week before the feast of the Nativity the O antiphons have a profound effect on the spirituality of Advent itself. Each of the antiphons refers to the prophecy of Christ as Messiah as found in the utterances of the prophet Isaiah. On December 17, the O-Antiphon “O Sapientia” begins by invoking “Holy Wisdom,” the ancient feminine embodiment of the Divine Presence in the Hebrew Scriptures. Here is the Latin text, and a literal translation: O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem fortiter, suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae. O Wisdom, who proceeds from the mouth of the Most High, reaching out mightily from end to end, and sweetly arranging all things: Come to teach us the way of prudence.   In all honesty, I really didn’t kno

  picture from Wikipedia, "Parenting" ( link )  Psalm 33: 13-22 13 From heaven the  Lord  looks down      and sees all mankind; 14  from his dwelling place he watches      all who live on earth— 15  he who forms the hearts of all,      who considers everything they do. 16  No king is saved by the size of his army;      no warrior escapes by his great strength. 17  A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;      despite all its great strength it cannot save. 18  But the eyes of the  Lord  are on those who fear him,      on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 19  to deliver them from death      and keep them alive in famine. 20  We wait in hope for the  Lord ;      he is our help and our shield. 21  In him our hearts rejoice,      for we trust in his holy name. 22  May your unfailing love be with us,  Lord ,      even as we put our hope in you.   When I was a little girl, we would take a trip into the “big city” of Edmonton from